Trauma Informed Practice for Teaching Artists #13, Fall 2024

DEADLINE TO APPLY: October 14th, 2024

Any artist working in community settings will encounter young people who have been affected by trauma. While teaching artists rarely have details access to a participant’s personal history, there are tools they can use to identify a young person who is potentially trauma-impacted and strategies that they can employ to accommodate and engage that young person.    

Note: This program is being offered live and in-person to teaching artists in the Philadelphia region. If you are outside of Philadelphia and interested in opportunities for this training, you can sign up for updates here or email us  to find out about bringing the training to your community.

Structure of the Training: Over the course of five, 4-hour sessions, a cohort of up to 12 teaching artists will deeply engage in rigorous presentations by leaders in trauma-informed practice and its application in a range of artistic  disciplines. Participants will be required to complete outside reading and reflection questions and, when possible, test the strategies they are learning in real time in their classrooms.

Teaching Artists must commit to attend all five, 4-hour training sessions to be held at the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia on Saturdays from 9:30 - 1:30pm from November 9th to December 14th. (There will be no class held on Saturday, November 30th. Breakfast will be provided at the start of each session, and there will be a break for a catered lunch approximately halfway through class. Bartol recognizes that as teaching artists, we are all moving through multiple sites and populations throughout the week. As such, the training will be a COVID-cautious space which prioritizes the wellness of artists and their communities.
 

What you will learn:
    Upon completion of the training, teaching artists recognize:

• The neurological and psychological nature of trauma.
• How trauma affects the brain, behavior, ability to trust, and ability to forge healthy relationships.
• How trauma can affect self-image, and lead to shame and fear.
• Behavior in students that indicates potential trauma, fear, shame or stress.
• What a trauma-impacted student does (and doesn’t) need to successfully participate and learn in a workshop setting.
• How arts can be healing, and what particular skills can help to heal trauma.
• The signs of secondary or vicarious trauma in themselves or in teaching partners.

Upon completion of the training, teaching artists can:

• Provide moments of consistency, ritual, and choice-making in their workshop culture.
• When a moment of trauma arises, provide students with a series of  options that can help them release and regulate themselves through that  moment.
• Adapt their lesson plans into a trauma-informed model.
• Adapt their facilitation practice into a trauma-informed model.
• Responsibly address trauma by creating moments of positivity and healing in their workshops.
• Find moments to guide students through personal reflection about  themselves, to help them recognize and acknowledge positive traits.
• Follow a safety plan for themselves and regularly incorporate self-care into their lives.

Who is Eligible?

• Teaching artists in all disciplines.
• Track record of at least three years of working with communities affected by trauma in- or out-of-school settings.
• Committed to teaching artist work with young people (K-12) as a significant part of your creative practice.
• Desire to be part of an ongoing learning community of teaching artists.

Your Commitment to the Training

• Attend all five, 4-hour training sessions Saturdays from 9:30 - 1:30pm from November 9th to December 14th. (There will be no class held on Saturday, November 30th). Classes will be held at the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102. 
• Prepare pre-work and be ready to contribute to each session to make workshop time efficient.
• Engage in each session with focus, curiosity and an open mind.
• Follow the COVID protection policies outlined below, for your health and the health of the community.

Bartol Foundation Commitment to You

• Convene practitioners in the field as presenters and participants who will bring knowledge and commitment to the training.
• Create an organized, supportive virtual environment for learning including learning materials, screen breaks and follow-up as needed.
• Listen fully to suggestions to improve the training both in real time and for future cohorts.
• Support the ongoing continuation of a learning community at the conclusion of the training, if desired by the participants.
• Provide a COVID-cautious space which prioritizes the wellness of artists and their communities. As such, we will ask participants and facilitators will be required to wear well-fitting masks at all times during training, and Bartol will provide rapid COVID testing at the beginning of every training session as an added precaution.
• Bartol will provide breakfast and lunch during each training session, and participants will be given access to isolated areas to unmask and enjoy their meals outside of the primary training classroom.

Stipend:  Upon successful completion by teaching artists of all five sessions and a final project,  the Bartol Foundation will provide a stipend of $200 to each teaching  artist in recognition of their participation.

Timeline

• Application Opens: Monday, September 23rd
• Application Closes: Monday, October 14th
• Notification: by Friday, October 18th.
• Acceptance of Slot: Monday, October 28th.

 
Co-Facilitator: Candy Alexandra González (they/them) is a Little Havana-born and raised, NYC and Philadelphia-based, multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, activist and trauma-informed art educator.  Candy received their MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking from the University of the Arts in 2017. Since graduating, they have been a 40th Street Artist-in-Residence in West Philadelphia, a West Bay View Fellow at Dieu Donné in Brooklyn, NY, Leeway Art and Change Grant Recipient and the 2021 Linda Lee Alter Fellow for the DaVinci Art Alliance. Candy is currently an Art + Art Education doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University.  Candy is a graduate of the Bartol Foundation’s training in Trauma-Informed Practice for Teaching Artists and Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist Practices and Identity. They also completed training with Lakeside Global Institute including Group Facilitation, Enhancing Trauma Awareness, Deepening Trauma Awareness and Applying Trauma Principles.
 

Co-Facilitator: Enoch the Poet (he/him) is a poet, author, trauma-informed teaching artist and creator and writer for manga series Immortal Dark. He was born and raised on the Northside of Wilmington, DE. As a mental health advocate and someone living with bi-polar disorder, his work examines the process of healing and the ways that trauma and mental health move through a family, as well as the outside forces that affect or have affected these developments. His goal is to create written works, curriculum, and platforms that deepen our emotional understanding and its cyclical relation to the conditions acting on the Black mind, body, and spirit. Enoch is the 2017 Philadelphia Fuze Grand Slam Champion and the author of two poetry collections, “The Guide to Drowning” released in 2017 and “Burned at the Roots” released in 2020. Enoch operates as the Program Director for ArtWell, a multi-disciplinary arts programming non-profit geared towards using the arts as a medium to enhance students' social-emotional toolkit, nurture the exploration of self, and strengthen their presence in community.